Beginning of Special effects

We all know that VFX effects are used in movies to give special effects. But ever you wondered that how special effects were given in the movies when there was no such software available?

Here are some movies that used special effects when the technology was not available:

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was the first ever movie which used magical special effects in the film industry. It was 18 seconds long film directed by Alfred Clark. The effect that used is known as Stop-Action Substitution. In that movie, the executioner raises his axe to chop head of blindfolded Mary. But at that instance, an edit was done in which Mary was replaced by a mannequin.

The Man with the Rubber Head:

In this movie, there was a scene showing a chemist trying to fix is own head upon a rubber with a pair of bellows and begins to blow. Immediately the size of head starts increasing. To create the illusion of an expanding head, Melies “zoomed” in on his own head with a camera and superimposed it onto the film. This effect is known as Split-Screen-Masking.

The Windsor Hotel Fire:

When fire hits the hotel, there were many guests trapped in the building. Some were rescued but because of intense fire some jumped from the building and some died in that fire. The victims who jumped from the buildings were replaced by miniatures as well as the building was also miniature made from cardboard.

The Corsican Brothers.

This film was released in 1909 by George Albert Smith. He used ‘Double Exposure’ technique to create a ghost of a man that appears to his twin brother and shows him the visual of how he died.

The impressive thing about all these movies are that they were on screens before VFX effects came into existence. Without such movies innovation in special effects might not have taken place.